1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for a portable terminal. More particularly, the present invention relates to an apparatus and method for controlling a key lock in a portable terminal.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, portable terminals are provided with key input units including keypads disposed on the bodies of the portable terminals. Conventional folder type, slide type, or flip type mobile communication terminals selectively expose keypads by opening/closing to protect the keypads from the external environment.
In recent years, because of a trend toward lightweight mobile communication terminals, attention has been placed on bar type mobile communication terminals that include exposed keypads. Slide type mobile communication terminals include keypads in which a portion thereof is selectively exposed while the other portion is always exposed for key input execution.
As portable terminals increasingly perform a variety of functions, keys corresponding to frequently used functions, such as a camera function or a multimedia function, are installed as external keys on the outside of mobile communication terminals so that it is convenient for users to press the keys. These external keys are easy to operate by mistake because they are positioned such that they are outside an apparatus for protecting keys.
In portable terminals having a plurality of external keys or having keypads exposed in whole or in part, it frequently occurs that key buttons are pressed by mistake, thereby unintentionally enabling operation of the portable terminals. For example, while a portable terminal is carried by a user and placed in a bag or pocket, other articles in the bag or pocket may press a key button of the portable terminal by accident, thereby causing an undesired operation of the portable terminal. This undesired operation of the portable terminal then requires the user's attention and causes an unnecessary consumption of charged power and causes a problem in that a user incurs an unnecessary call and/or communication fee.
Conventional methods for controlling a key lock include a method of adding an assistance key (e.g., a hold key) for locking/unlocking a key input and a method of setting a lock/unlock by manipulating a User Interface (UI).
However, in the conventional method of adding the assistance key (e.g., the hold key), an additional cost is incurred and a design is limited because of the added assistance key.
The conventional key lock control method using the UI requires execution of several processes for a lock/unlock and is relatively time consuming and inconvenient. In addition, when a portable terminal that operates in an idle mode, that is, in a sleep mode that is key-locked, if the portable terminal detects a key input, the key lock control method using the UI enables the portable terminal in order to determine whether the key input is a series of key unlock processes. Therefore, undesired frequent key input may lead to frequent enabling of portable terminals, thereby consuming power.